Modeling and Control for an Autonomous Sailboat: A Case Study

A brief review of the literature is used to select a model for sailing boats: The primary purpose of the modeling is to choose a suitable control strategy for autonomous sailing. Also, the model will be used as a state estimator that can handle different, and varying, sampling rates. An experimental setup for evaluating the model and the controller on a Mini 12 equipped for autonomous sailing is described. Practical trials using the Mini 12 are presented.